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Dr Mark Porter: Why I’ve switched to a low-carb diet for six weeks
- Image of plate of pasta removed, as it was ginagerous and added nothing to the article.
Dr Mark Porter
Published at 12:01AM, January 5 2016
My cholesterol is high, there is heart disease in my family and wholegrain bread has a similar GI score to sugar
The war on sugar has gone hi-tech this week following the launch of an app that tells shoppers how much is hidden in foods and drinks. The Sugar Smart app, produced by Public Health England (PHE), scans barcodes. It is aimed at parents to help them reduce children’s intake.
The average British five-year-old consumes their own bodyweight in sugar every year, with predictable effects on dental health and waistlines. But it is not just children who should be concerned. And it is not just added sugar that is worrying nutritionists and doctors.
You would have to have been living on another planet for the past couple of years to have missed sugar’s rise to the forefront of the debate about healthy eating. We all know that fizzy drinks, cake and confectionery are unhealthy but what about the sugars contained in more complex starchy carbohydrates such as bread and pasta — the sort of foods that make up around half our daily calorific intake?
There has been growing concern that starchy foods may not be as healthy as previously thought. Low-carb campaigners once dismissed as mavericks are fast becoming mainstream, and the low-fat/high-carb mantra that has pervaded healthy eating for decades is being questioned. It has certainly piqued my interest, so I have decided to make carbohydrates the subject of my new year’s resolution.
I am a pretty healthy chap. At 14st my weight is acceptable — I am 6ft 2in tall. I am active, training at least four times a week, and I eat a low-fat diet with plenty of fruit and veg. But, despite all this, I have a poor cholesterol profile — something that is all the more worrying because of my family history of early heart disease.
At 7.5 mmol/l my cholesterol level is 50 per cent higher than ideal but it is the mix of fats in my blood that concerns me more. I don’t have much “good cholesterol” (HDL) and far too many triglycerides — both factors associated with an increased risk of an early heart attack and stroke and, coincidentally, a high intake of carbohydrates.
The low-fat approach hasn’t made much impact on my blood chemistry, so for 2016 I have decided to try a different tack. Thanks to a sweet tooth and a love of bread I eat far too many carbs, so I am going to cut back on them for the next six weeks and see what it does to my cholesterol profile.
Starchy foods such as bread, pasta, rice and potatoes are supposed to make up about 50 per cent of the energy you consume every day but my intake is at least 65 per cent. Which means I am consuming a lot of sugar, because that is what starchy carbohydrates are made of — hundreds of little sugar molecules bound together ready to be broken up and absorbed into the bloodstream.
It is generally accepted that big spikes in your blood sugar level are not good for myriad reasons and starchy carbohydrates often raise it more than refined carbohydrates such as sugar. Nutritionists use the glycaemic index (GI) to measure this effect on blood sugar, using a scale that goes from 0 to 100 where low is good and high is bad, and you may be surprised to discover that granulated sugar has a similar GI to wholegrain bread (58 v 51). A white baguette, my particular bête noire, has a GI index of 95, about half as high again as Coca-Cola.
My plan is a simple one. I am not going crazy or super-low carb. The aim is to consume no more than 150g a day, which equates to 600 calories, or about 25 per cent of my daily requirement. Studies have shown that a low-carbohydrate diet can raise your good cholesterol and lower your triglycerides — just what I need — so I am going to put that to the test. I will report back.
Type change4life sugar smart into your search engine for details on the free PHE app.
Carbohydrate guidelines
■ Refined carbohydrates should make up no more than 5 per cent of daily energy intake — that equates to about 30g or 7 teaspoons of sugar a day for the average adult (less than the amount in one can of cola).
■ Current guidance advises total carbohydrate intake — sugars plus starchy foods — should make up about 50 per cent of your daily calories (230g for the average woman and 300g for the average man, where 1g = 4 calories approx).